When someone tells you something like, "I feel I have superhuman authority over it, I control it" then you better be advised that either they are a maniac or disillusioned somehow. As clear as I can tell Ngoni is neither maniac nor disillusioned. He is known as the 'Father of the pregnant skeleton' owing to the unique piece he did that captivated the art fraternity. Such an artist of such stunning breadth of talent that interviewing him, you are bewildered as to which talent to milk out because the man is busting with all things Picasso, Peter Tosh and Mzwakhe Mbuli! He is a banquet of flavours, he stuns and caresses and wrenches your gut and stills your fears; he leaves you breathless and communicates the dirtiest things you wouldn't dare utter. The worst of all is he dishes it all out without holding back in an animal lust until your head spins; he is honest and open right to the womb and heart of the matter, he is an artist. Living in Kopong, he ushered me unto his compound and the first thing you notice is his garden, which he planted on the day that his daughter (Natasha) was born two-and-a-half years ago. Incidentally, she is called Natasha because Ngoni was listening to a lot of Natasha Beningfield, especially the song Wild Horses. At 34-years-old, he sees himself as "the father of the oil paint" in Botswana because he has been painting for 19-and-a- half years. Here is our chat:
Mmegi: When did you start painting?
Ngoni: I'm not so sure, but 19-and-a-half years is as far back as I can recall because that is when I started carrying around my pallet. That's when I really got into oil painting because before I was using water paints, acrylic, charcoal and pencil.
